“Well, should we go back to class now? The chief said the break is over.”

Two children walked back from the biggest tree in the village to the house of the village chief.

The house looked shabby from the outside, as if it was rundown and to be avoided — a house fitting of a beggar, not respectable villagers.

“You know Annie, I find it pretty funny that I learned how to speak and write in 3 languages, but even though they are from another world and there is no one to converse with these languages, I don’t consider them dead. Yet, it pains me to feel like the language we learn now is dead. No one still speaks it, the only reason we learn it is to read the Old books, but wouldn’t it be easier just to translate them?”

With wisdom beyond her years, Anika repeated the words she kept hearing from the elder “It is important to learn these things to preserve our culture, our traditions - it is important to memorize the books in case..”

Suddenly another voice joined in, and in a complete synch two voices as one continued with a sarcastic smile

“... we need to rewrite them; we must guard the knowledge against those who don’t yet understand it’s importance.”

The voice that echoed belonged to an 8-year-old boy, with a cheeky smile, and thin soft hair.

Two more kids that seemed to be the same age came from behind him and slapped his back “Let’s go in Wayl”

Once they noticed that Ward was there, they congratulated him on his new brother as they walked into the classroom.

Contrary to how the house looked on the outside the main room was sturdy and clean, some stairs went to underground chambers and banners were hanging in front of every door. On the Classroom door, the words read “In Nasha's Knowlege we trust.”

Each of the kids jumped with their hand raised as they walked into the room, attempting to touch the banner but failing to do so. They didn’t give it more effort and continued to their seats, which were specially made to fit their size.

Before the chief returned to continue the lesson that was abruptly stopped to greet a new baby into the world. The students started chatting with one another.

Wayl who sat in the middle between Ward and Anika started asking.

“I heard you gave your baby brother a toy, now that you finished it, does it mean you will be continuing to work on the game you explained to us before?”

“Yes, it is almost done. We can play so many different games with a card deck; I promise they are fun.”

“Looking forward to it - maybe this time it will be a game I will be able to defeat Annie in.”

Anika chuckled at what she heard, but did not participate in the conversation and instead picked up her pen, dipped it in ink and started practicing the letters in front of her.

It wasn’t long for the Cheif to turn back his attention to his five students.

“Let’s continue where we left off and learn a new letter today. If you all continue to be this good, we can start reading Aklmat text, and learning the words our ancestors used to speak very soon.”

Before the chief could continue, Ward’s bright voice asked “Chief, I have a question that I thought about earlier. Why do we learn two languages? Why learn a language that is only written but not spoken? Why not translate the Aklmat books into Kieran for convenience?”

The Cheif’s tone as he answered was a delightful one as if he waited for the question “It has been over five generations since we sought the protection of the Northern Kingdom, per our agreement with them - we taught them how to make glass and calculate with advanced math. We then assimilated into the kingdom not as refugees but as citizens, to make sure they continue seeing us as such, we abandoned our language in favor of their language, a language that is spoken by the majority of the kingdoms around us, who knows what the problem with this is?”

Kyel, a child sitting next to Anika, with brown eyes and so much fat that he looked like a barrel, immediately answered without waiting for a heartbeat “Aklmat books are still being found, and if we can’t read it who will?”

The chief shook his head with a complicated look on his face and said “We must preserve our traditions, our language. Even after all this time have passed, even after abandoning our origins, the citizens of this kingdom still don't see us as one of them. This is something you will understand when you grow, but we are still at risk of genocide, if not by dying then by the complete ideological and theological wipe.”

The room was completely silent as if the children suddenly found out a secret that shakes their core, they understood what their parents were doing, but never realized why, but now they had a glimpse of that. They were not allowed to leave the village; all the adults were too vigilant and too cautious. They avoid implementing many things that they know off but are not used anywhere else in the kingdom in order to keep prying eyes of foreigners from coming to their remote village.

And most importantly, they are ready to abandon the village at any time, to scatter to another point.

‘It is wisdom to learn from history, but is it wise to not settle out of fear of history repeating itself?’

The thoughts kept remaining in Ward’s head.

‘Dad should be aware of mom’s due date and should be back any day now. I wonder if on his next trip outside, I can join him and see the foreigners myself - I don’t want to live in fear for the rest of my life; I don’t want my family, my tribe to have to go through that.’

“Okay, let us end the class here for today. If there is any work you haven’t finished yet which was assigned to your family, go finish it - “may the knowledge of Nasha guide you”

“May the knowledge of Nasha guide you” everyone responded with one voice, as they always do before leaving the rooms.

Ward wanted to head out to his farm to continue tying the wheat, the farm required a lot of efforts, but because his father’s work was outside of the village for months on end and his mother just gave birth, the responsibility of taking care of the farm was given to other villagers.

As a child, his job only consisted of tying up sheaves of wheat, the sheaves that were stacked by other children, and cut by adults around the time the children were studying.

After tying ten bundles, and finishing up his quota for the day, he rushed to his house in excitement, looking forward to meeting his brother again.

The mother was tired, with a white face that showed signs of her still feeling after birth pain. She was too tired to greet Ward, and was instead trying to sleep it off.

The baby had already fed and was sound asleep in a wooden cradle which is passed around the village from house to house each time someone gives birth. The baby was tied like a bundle and kept warm. The house was in reality just two small wooden room with the beds in them, the cradle was kept in the parent’s room, but Ward decided to drag it to his room so that in case the baby woke up, he could take care of him. His room had a stack of paper in it and what looked like a stack of wooden cards. Some soft to the touch and could fit in his hand, but another wooden plate, that was thin but rough.

Ward looked at his brother’s brown eyes and brown hair that matched his and gave a happy smile.

“I remember, the comfort of living in a stone house, sleeping in a warm bed, with easy access to water, food and oh glorious bathroom. I would’ve easily bought a toy for you now, the way I did for Ryley, instead I spent days trying to carve it myself - but I am honestly happy right now, so I wouldn’t trade it - and I will protect your happiness as well, I promise.”